Roger Price-Haworth, the head of UK institutional business at Pioneer Investments, has left the company. His departure comes just weeks after Pioneer cut the position of Paul Price, its global head of institutional business, as a cost-saving measure.

The departures are understood to reflect a decision by chief executive Roger Yates to scale back the asset manager’s institutional business. Yates took over from Dario Frigerio as Pioneer’s chief executive in January.

A spokeswoman for Pioneer said: “Since the arrival of Roger Yates as global CEO of Pioneer Investments in January 2010, the primary goal has been to accelerate the growth of our business by identifying areas of key strengths and focusing on opportunities that can create a platform to build those areas for future growth.

"As a part of this, following a review of Pioneer Investments’ institutional business and the development of a more focused strategy for the UK operation, Roger Price-Haworth, the current head of UK institutional, has decided to leave the company to follow other opportunities in the institutional market.”

Jillert Blom, formerly Pioneer’s head of western Europe institutional business, is now head of northern Europe after taking on Price-Haworth’s responsibilities, according to a spokeswoman at the company. Price-Haworth could not be reached for comment.